PIGSHIT by Gary Pig Gold: THE LAST 25 ALBUMS YOU EVER NEED ADD TO YOUR COLLECTION

76. Sinatra, Frank “A Man And His Music”
In a not untypical diva-like move, The Chairman got bored in the mid-Sixties and decided to script, produce, and even narrate his own career retrospective-to-date (for his very own record company). However, the result was, and is, as pleasant an audio documentary as you or I could ever hear, I am most pleased to report.

77. Sky, Patrick “Songs That Made AMERICA Famous”
All but unreleasable upon completion in 1973, and every single bit as deeply politically and socially incorrect today, one need only glance at a title or two (“Ramblin’ Hunchback,” “Bake Dat Chicken Pie,” “Vatican Caskets”) to realize these here are songs so infamous that only the bravest and thickest-skinned of listeners need apply themselves …but understand also that it’s a task more than worth the concerted effort.

78. Sly and the Family Stone “Stand!”
While others just as well meaning may point you towards “There’s A Riot Goin’ On” (or, niftier still, various collections of Sly’s pre-fame San Fran Soul productions), I’ll just have to stick with this 1969 pot-boiler and its centerpiece “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey” …yes, all six minutes of it!

79. Smothers Brothers “Sibling Rivalry”
They brought subversively absurdist socio-comedy smack dab into living rooms decades before Stewart or Colbert ever did, yet Tommy and Dickie were, and remain, skilled musicians first and foremost …and there’s eighteen full reasons right here why, among other things, Mom always seemed to like the snarky one best.

80. Spector, Phil “Back to Mono (1958-1969)”
Three discs, sixty songs, a great big book inside a great big box including lotsa gorgeous Ronettes pix and, as if this wasn’t much more than enough, there’s even Phil Spector’s Christmas album in here as well to help you erect your very own Walls of Sound every December 25!

81. Starr, Ringo “Beaucoups Of Blues”
I’ll just say right here and right now that Ringo was one of the greatest drummers ever …and that this here album is the kind of real Country I’ve yet to hear any of them much bally-hoo’d neo-traditionalists come anywhere CLOSE to.

82. Steppenwolf “Monster”
It surely doesn’t have to be repeated how the (gulp) Concept Album pretty well killed p-o-p as we once knew and loved it. But if one must subject oneself to twenty-minute songs railing against government, society, and/or organized religion, please let it be only John Kay and Co. who do the dirty honors, as they do so extremely well herein …for God’s (not to mention Tommy’s) sake.

83. Teenage Head “Endless Party”
Canada’s very own Brothers Ramone never did it quite so well as they did on this Labbatts-soaked 1984 concert platter, which sports as a Bonus Track the one, the only “Top Down”: the biggest should’a-been-a-great-big-hit cartoon car tune this side of Jan Berry’s immortal “Schlock Rod.”

84. “They Came From Outer Space”
The Ran-Dells’ 1963 “Martian Hop” is reason enough to covet this other-worldly compilation …but then there’s also “Flying Saucer Rock and Roll,“ “The Purple People Eater,” “The (original, by the way) Blob” and even Billy Mumy’s “Ballad of William Robinson” just to ensure you remain forever lost in your own space.

85. Thunderclap Newman “Hollywood Dream”
You may already know and even love this loopy trio’s classic “Something In The Air,” but did you know that this album is chockfull of numbers every single bit that one chart-topper’s equal and more (…or that producer Pete Townsend played bass throughout under the daring alias “Bijou Drains”)?

86. Tiny Tim “Rock”
Nary a tulip is to be tip-toed anywhere on this understandably-rare (and apparently AC/DC band-sanctioned) collection of Mr. Tim attacking such unwieldy behemoths as “Rebel Yell” …which is duly pummeled into submission after a completely ear-dropping twenty-three-minutes-twenty-eight, I’ll have you know!

87. Troggs “Live at Max’s Kansas City”
The second-greatest Trogg Tape in existence (next to you-know-what), this one features R. Presley and the boys’ sturdy late-Seventies “old wave” line-up effortlessly mauling “Satisfaction” and “No Particular Place To Go” (no “Good Vibrations” this time however, most unfortunately) alongside, you bet, the hit that launched a million air-ocarinists.

88. Turtles “Battle of the Bands”
What happens when you give not only the once-and-future Flo and Eddie, but their entire band a great big budget (hot off of a couple’a hit singles) and then leave them alone to write and record their much-anticipated follow-up album is only hinted at on this, yes, Concept Album to kill ALL Concept Albums.

89. Twilley, Dwight “Sincerely”
It was hard to find this beaut even when it was first released in 1976, but everyone lucky enough to hear and own it then realized – and so rightly it turns out – that Dwight and right-hand man Phil Seymour really were making powerful pop for the ages, as this entire endeavor sounds every bit as air-freshening now as it did then.

90. Utopia “Deface The Music”
Roll over Big Todd, and tell The Rutles the news!

91. Vincent, Gene “Bluejean Bop!”
This first full long-playing slab of rock ‘n’ roll ever to make its way into, then out of, the Capitol Records tower intact sounds every single bit as gamey, greasy and gin-soaked now as it must’ve back in the year of its blessed creation, 1956 A.D.

92. Who “The Who Sell Out”
Who (sorry) would’ve ever in a million years imagined that any album sleeve that pictured Roger Daltrey sitting, and freezing, inside a gigantic tub of Heinz baked beans could be so thoroughly up-staged by the mere music it held inside its cover?

93. Wiedlin, Jane “Jane Wiedlin”
Like some lovingly lemon-colored aberration dropped onto the fairway green, the coolest (not to mention most melodic) Go-Go most confidently launched her non-Belinda career atop Randell Kirsch’s exquisite “Blue Kiss,” only to be followed by ten other charmers on this indisputable must-hear.

94. Williams, Hank “Live at the Grand Old Opry”
(see Number 69 in last week PigShit)

96. Winter, Johnny “Second Winter”
The world’s first – and probably only – three-sided vinyl record still sounds damn good digitally, I must report, with the Great White Wonder absolutely pot-holing “Highway 61 Revisited” whilst twice taking even Little Richard to task in the process.

97. Wray, Link “Link Wray”
The man, the myth, the “Rumble” took to his three-track chicken-shack studio sometime circa Woodstock and came straight out with no less than a template for all of the so-called rooty-rock that was soon to follow.

98. XTC “Fossil Fuel: The XTC Singles 1977-1992”
A good time before Colin Moulding and especially Andy Partridge started becoming quite too clever for their orange and lemon jumpers, there lived a twee little British combo called XTC who played the Pop game as few ever have before or since: Consequently, the thirty-one tracks herein clearly chart a defiant nose-thumbing against the ever-encroaching dumb-down of the (music) world in general …and you can even dance to it if you’d like!

99. Yanovsky, Zalman “Alive and Well in Argentina”
The late, greatly lamented Lovin’ Spoonful lead guitar man spent his Summer of Love concocting this wholly South of the Equator collection of sounds and stylings which sits every single bit as deliciously bent today as it surely did back then.

100. Young, Neil “Journey Through The Past”
The last word, as it usually does, goes to young Neil and this tres-Shakey soundtrack to an imaginary western which includes lotsa CSN and especially Buffalo Springfield goodies, then somehow manages to end it all quite regally with an actual track on loan from no less than “Pet Sounds.”